27th July 1979: Imperial Hotel, Blackpool With OMD, The Final Solution, Section 25, The Glass Torpedoes and Zyklon B This was a "Year Of The Child" benefit concert promoted by Section 25 * Songs performed: 01. Dead Souls 02. Glass 03. Disorder 04. Auto-Suggestion 05. Transmission 06. She's Lost Control 07. Shadowplay 08. Atrocity Exhibition. Tape 1: Appx duration: 35 mins. Sound quality: 7/9. Tape 2: Most of Dead Souls is missing, but has better sound (Appx duration: 30 mins. Sound quality: 8/9). Tape 3: Another tape surfaced in 2005, this is missing a small part of Dead Souls (Duration: 33:16 mins. Sound quality: 7+/9). KF, who recorded this tape, sent us his memories of the concert Tape 4: Incredibly the person who recorded tape 3 tells us his mate also recorded the gig and that tape is even better quality. The entire concert appeared on these bootlegs: All Gods Angels Beware Live In Blackpool 1979 Songs 07 & 08 from this concert appeared on the following bootleg LPs: Shades Of Division LP Space LP House Of Prayer 2LP Notes: Orchestral Manouvres in the Dark played support for Joy Division! The gig was put on by a few members of Section 25 (this was before Section 25 became known).

KF was there:       The music press were in a frenzy about the new alternative sounds emanating from the suburbs of Manchester. I had just heard the John Peel session by Joy Division. New Dawn Fades was my catalyst. I played it again and again until I realised I had to see this band. Fate or just plain good luck, I don't know which but it was announced that my new favourite band were to play the Imperial Hotel, Blackpool. A mere 50 yards from my front door step. I had often taken my tape recorder to gigs. A simple Philips affair with auto levels and a hand held mike. I knew I had to record this gig. This was something special. In the low roofed hall with space for 300 people at a push, I took a position left of centre stage. A local band The Final Solution were getting ready to start. I knew the keyboard player and wondered if the thin ties and hitler youth style haircuts and clothing were a misinterpretation of the whole scene. There was a Nazi undertone however misguided, and 'The Final Solution' fell for it hook, line and sinker. To be honest I enjoyed their set. Twiddly keyboards and serious brooding, but it suited the atmosphere and passed the time. Next came OMD. A tape machine that they had called 'Eric' or some such nonsense. All the rythyms were on it and andy mclusky or whatever his name was, played bass and sung some drivel over the top about messages from Stanlow oil refinery.   Joy Division appeared and even during the long moody intro to Dead Souls I knew that this was to be something special. There was something about Joy Division that held your concentration. Maybe the fact that Ian Curtis was so intense and so obviously 100% genuine. The Imperial was the perfect place for Joy Division to play. A small low roofed function suite behind the austere grandeur of the famous seafront hotel. You got in through a fire exit on Dickson Road. The place hasn't changed at all from the outside to this day. A dingy dark corridor with a door 10 yards down on the right which led into the main room with a stage to the immediate right and the rest of the room was dancefloor. On the opposite side to this entrance door was another door leading to the bar area. The dressing rooms were on the left as you walked in off the street. It was the only way in and so if you lingered you saw the band at close quarters. Shadowplay, Atrocity Exhibition all became anthems for me that night. Yes they were dark and he meant it. This was performance art on a scale you will only see once in a blue moon. Dave McCullough was pilloried for the 'He died for you' article, but if you were here on this night you could maybe understand some of that article. My tape is far from perfect, but a precious part of my musical heritage             Schubert was there: ... and pointed out that Section 25, Liverpool band The Glass Torpedoes and Blackpool band Zyklon B were on the same bill. " ... I remember this gig. it was the first time my parents let me stay out till late. I can remember watching Final solution who I thought were shite, The glass Torpedoes who at the time I thought were really good and I can remember being bored to the back teeth with OMD, I was at the back of the room, I'm 15, skint and laid on a grubby carpeted floor at the back of the room thinking I am unbelievably bored. Then I heard this band start playing, a deep throbbing bass which totally captivated my imagination and brought me back into a world filled with meaning. Like an extra from the film "The children of the damned" with my bleach blonde hair, I got up and made my way to the front thinking "what a fuckin' band, who are they", of course it was Joy Division, I had heard of them but had never checked them out, so what I was hearing was without hype and totally cold. I made my way to the front centre stage left, A bass player with a low slung guitar meaning every note was dancing away, a guitarist with his head down and this singer in front of me moving about like I'd never seen before. I didn't know it at the time but this was going to be a defining moment in my life (and I have been a miserable bastard ever since) it wasn't the catalyst that had got me into music, that was punk rock but it was the burning light of creativity that inspires me and many others even to this day".